Support for motion detectors

We are often asked if we can add the Philips Hue Motion Sensor or another motion sensor to Olisto. With this small squared box you could make crazy triggs based on your movement in the house. We had contact with Philips Hue about this. The explanation they give actually is applicable to all brands.

Unfortunately, Philips does not offer the Motion sensor outside their own app yet. This has, among other things, a technical background. The Motion Sensor can not communicate to other devices or services that there is movement. In any case, the service is not available outside your own network your Philips Hue bidge is connected to. Therefore, we could only request your movement locally.

The other service (Olisto for example) has to ask the Motion Sensor if there is any movement. This is called “Polling”. It is not realtime by nature and not the most efficient method for us. In theory, we could ask every second if there is any movement detected. However there are some limitations how often our servers can ask these kind of questions to the servers at Philips. It would be technically too much of a burden for the servers of Philips, which not only get our requests but also from other parties, as well as for our own servers, which constantly have to ask all kind of sensors if there is any movement. The realtime effect is hereby also nullified by the entire process that is being taken. If there is a movement detected, the signal follows this route: Motion Sensor > Hue Bridge > Router > modem > Internet > Server Philips > Server Olisto > Internet > Action (for example, email, lights, notification etc.) In every step of the route a chance of delay is possible, so you understand this will be very hard…

It is a bit of a technical explanation, but hopefully clear enough why we can not support the Motion Sensor of Philips Hue at the moment.

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